According to its statutes, the Herder-Institute supports with its collections and as a forum for academic discussion the research on the countries and peoples of East Central Europe in their European context, with special regard to the history of the historical German territories and areas of settlement in East Central Europe. In order to fulfill these tasks, the institute conducts its own research. The core subject of its work is the area of the present-day states of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Germany. Originally organized to search for non-German persons who had become missing or displaced during the war and to assist separated families in being reunited. It now holds millions of records on concentration camp prisoners, Jews, foreigners in German-controlled territories & displaced persons.

For the preservation of the societal memory of the political persecution in the recent past of the Soviet Union. Publishes Books of Memory which contain names of victims, also short biographical descriptions of the victims, and sometimes even photographs.

The TNL collection consists of 1,414,108 works including books,periodicals and non-book materials.There are 943,964 books and 356.340 volumes of periodicals containing newspapers, magazines, bulletins and annuals.